Living in a dorm where rules are routinely ignored can be chaotic, but nothing prepared me for the betrayal I experienced from someone I thought I could trust.
I’m 14M, and smoking isn’t allowed in our dorm, though most kids do it anyway. One day, I was having a serious conversation with a friend. He’d noticed I hadn’t been myself lately and asked if I was okay. As we talked, I started opening up about my struggles with depression and even confided in him about a past suicide attempt something I’ve rarely shared with anyone.
In the middle of our conversation, the smoke alarm went off. He casually mentioned that if anyone asked, I should vouch for him and say he was in my room talking, not smoking. At the time, I didn’t think much of it and agreed.
Not ten minutes later, he called me to come and back up his story. I did, not realizing what would come next. About half an hour later, a kid from another grade approached me and said, “A little bird told me you tried to kill yourself once.”
I was stunned. I immediately asked how he knew something so private. Turns out, in the ten minutes before I vouched for him, my “friend” had spilled the details of our deeply personal conversation to prove he wasn’t smoking. He used my most vulnerable moment as an excuse to clear his name.
When I confronted him, his response was to offer me a pizza like that would fix the damage. Since then, I’ve been ignoring him entirely. He’s been calling me “dramatic” and “overreacting” and is even angry that I won’t acknowledge him.
Am I wrong for cutting him off, or is protecting my privacy worth standing my ground?